


Paying Dues

by Rocky_T



Category: Star Trek: Deep Space Nine
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-01-24
Updated: 2019-01-24
Packaged: 2019-10-15 14:23:05
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,131
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17530370
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Rocky_T/pseuds/Rocky_T
Summary: A Lower Decks characters story, set during the Dominion War.





	Paying Dues

**Author's Note:**

> Star Trek and its characters belong to Paramount. Sully and Yosh, however, are mine.  
> Many thanks to Seema for the beta.  
> Originally written and posted January 2006.

"Nobody joins Starfleet to be a hero," Vince Yoshino said, leaning back in the one comfortable chair in his quarters as he took a quick look at the wall chrono. Another forty five minutes before he had to report for duty and he was mostly ready--all but his uniform jacket, which still lay on the table where he'd tossed it last night. He transferred his attention back to the image on the comm screen and grinned. "Unless you're trying to say that's why you joined up, Sully?"

"Of course," said Jon Sullivan, his blue eyes wide and innocent. "Didn't you?" At Yosh's disbelieving snort, he dropped the act. "OK, people sign up for the thrill of exploration, the chance to 'boldly go'--at least, I did."

"And here I thought you joined Starfleet because of me--ever since we were kids you always had to do everything I did." Yosh smiled, remembering some of the scrapes they'd gotten into--usually over things he'd talked Sully into going along with. Not that Sully had usually required much persuading…

Sully chuckled, but sobered quickly as he glanced at something out of Yosh's line of sight, probably an instrument panel of some type. As Sully's weekly calls tended to take place during long duty shifts, Yosh was used to the occasional work-related interruption in their conversation.

"And look where it got me," Sully continued, no trace of humor in his expression now as he tapped a rapid series of commands into the console on his right. At last he looked up, and wearily smoothed a hand over his curly blond hair. As everyone was forever saying, he looked much younger than his twenty two years, way too young to be in Starfleet. Yosh was of the opinion his own recently-grown Van Dyke made him look considerably older, although they were actually the same age. "My first assignment as a newly commissioned officer is a science outpost out in the middle of the Black Cluster--about as close to nowhere as you can get--studying gravitational wavefronts."

"That's what you get when you major in quantum cosmology instead of security like me." Yosh's attempted lighthearted tone quickly degenerated. "Except that I haven't done much better. We're at _war_ , Sully, and look at me, stuck on a starbase deep in Federation territory. Not even a ship." He tried and failed to keep the bitterness out of his voice. "I might as well be planetbound for all the good I'm doing anyone."

"Come on, Yosh. Even safe and cushy starbases need security officers. Besides," Sully added, "you get to see a lot of different people, have stuff happening all the time. You certainly get a lot more excitement than I do out here."

Yosh rolled his eyes. "You want to know the most excitement we had here recently? It was a formal banquet for the Roethelian ambassador."

"Roethelian?"

"A small protectorate in the Beta Quadrant," Yosh said impatiently. "I think it encompasses a total of what, three solar systems? Anyway, there was this banquet--"

"Sounds like a real life and death situation to me," Sully agreed with a smile.

"Oh, stop it," Yosh said, with a wave of his hand. "OK, not life and death, but we _were_ on the brink of an interstellar incident." 

"Really? Why?"

"Mushrooms," said Yosh.

"Mushrooms?"

"Yeah. There were stuffed mushrooms among the hors d'oeuvres being served."

"Let me guess, Roethelians are allergic to mushrooms?" said Sully. He had stopped smiling.

Yosh suddenly recalled an incident during a Parises Squares practice session which had taken place when they were ten or eleven years old. Sully had taken a drink from a water bottle being passed around the group and immediately started having trouble breathing. Apparently, one of the other children had just eaten a bag of peanuts--which Sully was violently allergic to. Luckily, there had been a medkit handy but in the few seconds before the hiss of the hypospray, Yosh had been convinced his friend was going to die. Even all these years later, he still found the memory disturbing.

"No, the medical personnel are always careful to check out stuff like that," Yosh said, kicking himself for his thoughtlessness. "In this case, it was the cultural liaison staff who blew it. See, the database said the fungi are greatly revered by their society. What nobody bothered to find out was, that meant the Roethelians considered them sacred objects and used them in worship, not that they liked to eat them. Or weren't horrified to see others eating them."

Sully laughed appreciatively. "Sounds like a problem, all right. I'm sure the brass managed to smooth things over?"

"Eventually," Yosh said. "But you can be sure there were a lot of red faces the next day when the base commander found out the cause of the 'sacrilege.'" He exhaled sharply. "At least it broke up the monotony. I swear, there are times I'd almost welcome an attack. If I have to check just one more cargo manifest or break up another bar fight--"

"Those are important things, too. And I'd still take a starbase with four hundred people any day over a lonely outpost." Sully stood to reach something above his head, temporarily moving out of focus. He sat back down and sighed heavily. "Sure, we get the latest holoprograms, not to mention unlimited use of the subspace comms--"

"Which I certainly appreciate," Yosh said. "I don't talk to my own mother as often I do to you, you should know."

"--but it's not the same as personal interaction, Yosh," said Sully softly. "It really isn't."

Yosh shifted uncomfortably. "It's not like you're really alone out there--you're part of a team, after all."

"A two man team," Sully corrected. "And we're always working opposite shifts so we don't have much interaction. Besides, the other guy's a Vulcan, and in case you didn't know, they kind of don't warm up to people."

"Give it time."

"Yeah, time," Sully said. His voice took on a wistful note. "I've been out here three months, another 6 to go till this tour of duty is over and I can put in a request for reassignment." He was silent for a moment. "Maybe a ship this time."

Yosh glanced at the chrono again, then got up and headed toward the replicator.

"Hey, Yosh, you still there?" said Sully.

"Yeah, just getting a cup of coffee."

"Do you have to go? When does your shift start?" 

"I've got another few minutes yet," Yosh said. For a moment he entertained the idea of being late--or even not showing show up at all. Just as quickly, he squashed it. His absence would be noted, of course, and without a valid excuse, he would only be hurting himself. It was too early in his career to mess up--if there was ever an opportune moment for such a thing. "So what you said before, you looking to get on one of the big _Galaxy_ class vessels?" he said teasingly. "Maybe even the flagship?"

Sully's smile indicated he knew Yosh was mocking himself as well. "Not the flagship. I know my limitations." He raised his voice over Yosh's beginning protests. "I'm not one of those heroic types, the ones who determine the fate of a planet or system, heck, the whole quadrant."

"Maybe we could be, if they'd just give us the chance," Yosh said stubbornly. "If we'd actually be on the spot for something big. Look at Sisko and Deep Space Nine--he thought he was heading off to some little backwater planet and before you know it, he helped make it the focal point of the whole damned quadrant."

"That was because of the wormhole." 

"That's what I mean," Yosh said, leaning forward intently. "The Cardassians sat there on Bajor for half a century and never knew what they had. But Sisko comes along and boom--suddenly it's a whole new ballgame." 

"But it's not going to happen to us," Sully said quietly. "Well, maybe it will for you. You get some big shots passing through the 'base, you never know when you might be in the right place to save the day."

"And you just may be in the exact location to make some big scientific discovery," Yosh said.

"Yeah, right," Sully said, shaking his head. "Maybe if I was stationed somewhere else. The most exciting thing to happen in the Black Cluster was back in '68, when the _Vico_ was destroyed."

"I remember that," Yosh said. His uncle--the one who had encouraged him to join Starfleet--had been stationed on that vessel. "They thought it was due to some foul play by the Breen, right?"

"Until the _Enterprise-D_ was affected by the same gravitational phenomena." Sully quickly added, "Not that I'd want to be in the middle of a battle. There's a reason I went into science--I'm not the heroic type like some people I know." His pointed stare left no doubt who he meant.

"You know, Sullivan, if you were a little closer than 700 light years, I'd--"

"I'm shaking in my boots," Sully assured him, his eyes dancing.

Yosh chuckled despite himself. "But seriously, we've only been out of the Academy a short while. Still plenty of time to make our mark."

"You think?"

"What, you planning on being an ensign forever?" Yosh shook his head. "Not me. My goal is to make lieutenant in three years."

"Not captain?" Sully asked. Yosh wasn't completely sure he was still teasing.

"Like you, I know my limitations," Yosh retorted. It was his turn to fall silent. "I'm not saying I want to die, but if you don't take any risks--I mean, I didn't join Starfleet to sit on my ass while others are doing all the fighting. I want to make a difference," his voice dropping low. "Just give me a chance. That's all I'm asking for."

"See, this goes back to what I said before," Sully said with another grin. "You want to be a hero."

Yosh put down his empty coffee mug and decided regretfully he didn't have enough time for a refill. "My definition of a hero is someone who makes things happen, no matter where he is. Why does everyone speak of the _Enterprise_ the way they do? After all, it's just a ship, one of several others in the fleet. You don't hear much about the rest of 'em, their exploits. But the _Enterprise_ , they're always 'on the spot when things get hot.' What are the odds? A whole ship full of heroes, from the captain on down."

"The _Enterprise_ is a special case," Sully said. "Look at the history that comes with the name--Archer, Kirk, Harriman, Garrett, and of course, Picard. Talk about fate--they couldn't be anything less."

"So we're just fated to remain anonymous. Is that what you're saying?" Yosh asked.

Sully sighed. "Just look at where we are now. Didn't exactly get the top postings out of the Academy, did we?"

"Everybody has to pay their dues," Yosh said, reaching for his jacket. "Even Picard and Sisko."

"I guess so," Sully said. "Our time will come eventually, if we just--" He broke off suddenly.

Yosh glanced in the mirror, ran a comb through his short black hair, and decided he looked presentable enough. "Yeah. Hopefully we'll have better luck with our next postings." There was no answer. "Sully? You listening to me?"

Sully's head was bent over his console and he didn't look up. "I'm picking up some anomalous readings," he muttered. "Almost look like warp signatures, but they can't be--the mass energy ratio is all wrong."

"A ship?" Yosh froze, the comb still in his hand. "Sully, are you saying there's a ship out there? One of ours--I mean, Federation registry?"

"Can't tell," Sully said tersely. "It could be a single ship, it could be a whole fleet, but this is like nothing I've ever seen before--These energy signatures, or whatever they are, they're increasing exponentially--"

"Sully, what are you talking about? Sully?" Yosh was getting seriously alarmed now. "What's going on? "

There was a burst of static and then the comm screen went blank.  
***

"You are to be commended for your quick action, Ensign," said Commander Blake, "or should I say, Lieutenant." He held up the new pip and smiled. "If you hadn't managed to relay that early warning from the Black Cluster observatory before its destruction, the incursion by the Breen would have caused a lot more damage than it did." 

Blake paused, clearly expecting a comment, but Yosh was silent. "Starfleet owes a lot to you--and to the late Ensign Sullivan, of course."

"Yes, sir," Yosh said softly. "He was a real hero."


End file.
